San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1887-01-17
A woman's Advice 10 Her Sex.

For the LIGHT:
hope you will kindly accord me space
enough In your columns to address n few
words Of advice and warning TO my sex,
and 10 impress on them the IndispuTab
truth, thar the browning glory Oi.woman
IN every walk OF life, whether in riches
or poverty. Is chastity, and that nothing
can compensate its loss. Ii Ia very pain
full and saddening TO every true woman,
to know many Of her sex have fallen
from yirrue and are leading sinful, de-
bias d and miserable lives; tired of life,
yet afraid OF death, sick TO their hearts
| core OF vice, dissipation and profanity,
| yet unable firmly 10 resolve to abandon
! their sinful manner Of life God pity
and help these poor, ruined and Gndune
women! The CensOTiOus world never
suffers the sharp edge OF its c. insure 70
be blunted by the reflection. that these
ruined and undOne women owe their de-
basement and misery to the pertidy and
| lust OF men. If we cannot reclaim the
women that have already fallen from
their degradatiOns-we may at least sue
coed In preventing any more from TAX
ing the same terrible plunge. Even fallen
women should feel the strongest wish TO
prevent other women from marrying
disrespectabiliiy- degradation, seli-cOn-
tempt and misery, by betaking them
selves to prostitution, for they know
from bitter experience the miserable
lives they lead; and should desire to de-
ter other women from madly, OF heed
ltssly, plunging into the like condition.
The sense of womanhOod should lead
even prostitutes TO save other women
from debasemen-. Alas many OF them
are so lost to the sense of womanhOod
as to Use every art and artifice 10 eEtice
virldOus but thoughtiess women into
the paths of vice from which few ever
make their escape, and wha. Il an ag-
grayation of their insensiOility 10 the
sense OF common wOmanhOo0, they
are impelled by merGenary motives to
act the part of temptresses OF their own
sex-a circumstance hat seems 10 go far
towards proving the truth of the old
Roman saying, that VIII n woman
loses her virtue she contracts all the
vices ard inCulgrs in every form OF
immortality, and becomes totally de-
PRAYED. Ii my appeal could reach fall
len women, | would implore them TO
strain every nerve and exert every in
fluence In order to prevent their sister
women from taking the faTai plunge
into mental bodily and moral debase-
ment. Depict 10 them the misery OF
life of self adherence, intensified by the
consciousness, that they are cut of from
the respect of all whose respect is worth
the seeking, and that every year but
drags them lower down into the ABYSS
of self-degratiOn, and adjure them to
withdraw, while il is possible to do 80
from tbe slippery edge of a bOttomless
pit. II fallen women would but make
an honest effort 10 save their sister
women from their own miserable fate,
they won d prove thereby that they
were not devoid of all sense of woman
hood, and we've not totally depraved.
Few animals prey on their own kind.
d il il shocking to see women lending
their active aid in corrupting and ruin
ing their sister women for mere lust OF
money. There is another thing women
might do from regard for their own
sex, and that is to spurn married men.
How many loving wives have been made
utterly miserable by having the atfec-
lions OF their husbands stolen from them
by some arIful harlof, whose sole motive
was lust of money. Surely, they are
not so dead to humane feeling as 10 be
Indifferent to the agony of broken
hearted wife "a sister woman. All! they
should not war upon their own seX-they
should not destroy the happil ess and
never injured them, but would gladly
reclaim them from lives Of vice, dissipa-
lion and sin.
Thoughtlessness and indiscresTiOn &C.
OasiOn ne undOing of thousands of wO-
men, that might be the COrinthisn
capitals of society the indiscrestiUn
invite improper attention. which are an
insult TO virtuOus women, and lead them
to compromise their regulations. A
woman should prize the purity of her
reputation. A women should prize the
purity OF her re putation above all things
in the world and recOil from everything
calculated to give people, occasion TO
doubt her being chaste. | would i'm
press on my Sex, the truth that mUdesiy
is not only the greatest charm, but the
best safe guard of woman, and
tGst want of mOdesty invites at
tentiOns that are insults. since they
spring from the belief, that an immodest
woman is necessarily unGhaste in her
heart and not likely to offer a determin-
ed resistance. Modesty prevents all i'm.
proper attentions; immodesty invites
them, and when they are offered, loses
the courage to spurn and repel them, in
consequence OF the CONSCIOUSNESS of haV-
ing invited them. Whenever | observe
girls to be wanting in modesty. my soul
shoulders with an involuntary fear, that
they will become the victims OF the
spOiler and wreck their lives. love my
seX-I respect wOmanhood-I desire TO
see wOmanhOOd command chiyalrouS re-
speot, and on his account, II fills me
with unutteraOle sorrow to see woman
disgrace her sex and lower the rank Of
wOmanhOOd. Sometimes, | almost fear
that female modesty is becoming I'M
fashionable, and likely to be regarded as
rusticity-a reflection, that saddens me
far more than words can describe but
hope women will never cOnF ider mod
esty in the light of an impedim Mt to be
shaken off.
Women are prone to desire to be
loved, and consequently, they believe
men to be perfectly sincere when they
indulge in eXtraVagqnt prOteststiOns of
love, and are apt 10 give their hearts
affections TO those that make the lOudest
professions, without scrutiniZing very
closely the dispositions and characters
of such persons. Vicious and wicked
men employ love as decOy and q stalk.
ing horse, for effecting the ruin of
women. No woman should, In Justice to
herself, listen to the declarations of any
man, who Is not at liberty TO marry her
that beng the best proof of his inten-
tiOns being honorable and his profess
sions being sincere. A woman is stark
mad TO allow a married man to breathe
love to her, because she is aware ne can
not marry her and that he ia a traitor to